To think you don’t catch a butterfly and take it round M&S

Why ? We farm and slaughter animals for food. There’s a point to it. What’s the point of trapping a butterfly in a net and carting it round M&S ? The ‘if you eat meat you’re a hypocrite for worrying about a butterfly’ argument doesn’t stand up here. And now it would appear that we can’t eat veg either because pesticides kill caterpillars. Fish anyone ? Nope, can’t eat that either.

Despite not being vegan myself. I agree with the vegan argument on here. It’s speciesism to get on your high horse about a butterfly but to continue to eat meat or dairy.

A butterfly is basically a wild creature and we need them as pollinators. I do not understand why anyone would be capturing them to "study". Grow native plants and study them in your garden where they fucking well should be. This makes me livid frankly and I would not have held back. I have noticed a dramatic decline in butterflies in my lifetime and this is NOT acceptable behaviour and this mother and child should know better. And schools.

Was just picking up a few bits in M&S and there was a girl about 8 years old or so swinging one of those butterfly net thingies off her arm. On closer inspection I saw she had one in there (not the ones you send away for, although that would be bad enough, one that had obviously been procured organically)

Her mum was busy looking at something so I said to the girl ‘oh! What a pretty butterfly. That’s a large white. I except you’re going to let it go after you’ve finished your shopping, aren’t you?’

The mum came over beaming presumably ready to hear a comment about what a fun summer holiday activity this all is, and said ‘no, we’ll take it home, keep it for a few days and observe it. It flew straight into the net so we had this ready to pop it straight into!’

‘I said ‘well I’m sure it would have been preferred to be observed in nature, where it was, not caught in a net and taken round the shops. Don’t you think it’s a bit cruel?’

Anyway she was visibly annoyed, and said ‘it’s fine. My children are learning about nature! We know what it eats!’

Anyway she steered her child away from me and said some people are just very joyless and bitter.

Yeah I know I probably sound like a busy body but I can’t bear it when parents tell their kids it’s ok to just take stuff out of nature for their own amusement. Why is it ok to do this? It’s so Victorian, to capture a creature to just look at it, no thought for the poor thing at all. Don’t get me started on why they still sell butterfly nets 😭

I caught a pigeon the other day and some bloke held it while I used nail scissors to cut off all the hair the poor beggar had wrapped round and round his feet and he couldn’t walk. (Yeah I know I shouldn’t have helped him because I’m not vegan 😅)

There’s an animal charity in London that go round and do the same, it’s a real problem, they spend so much time on the pavements and over time lots of them get hair wrapped round their little feet and it is very painful for them and eventually cuts off their circulation. I know lots of people wouldn’t care though because they’re ’just rats with wings’ (I don’t mind rats either as long as they stay out of my house)

You don't need to be arsey, the point stands that if you're happy for animals to be used and kept in less than great conditions for you to have eggs and dairy it is by nature hypocritical for you to kick off about a butterfly in a net. I'm not a vegan, it's not "vegan logic" that's just logic, isn't it?

Because butterflies are pretty they get special dispensation. And you get to feel good for telling off a kid in a store (and kudos for naming the shop lest we think you were slumming it in ASDA).

Yes, it’s very strange!

Honestly I’m clearly a dissenting voice here but I feel like this was very confrontational and downright rude actually. It’s not something I’ve ever given a lot of thought to but as they do this in schools etc it hadn’t really occurred to me that it’s a problem to keep a butterfly for a few days.

I can see why you feel the way you do now I’ve thought about it more, but perhaps if you feel this strongly it would be better to raise public awareness generally online etc about why this is a bad idea, rather than confront an individual mother and child about it. They were happy and having fun and engaging in learning about nature rather than mindlessly watching TV or playing computer games etc. That child may now just remember some random woman being horrible to her and upsetting her mum (how dare she think a stranger was randomly accosting them to say something nice instead of critical for a change), for wanting to learn about butterflies, and switch off from any interest in nature in the future.

I would see it as exactly the same as someone coming over to randomly confront you about why you’re eating a sausage roll in a supermarket cafe, accusing you of cruelty to animals. If you wouldn’t want to be in that situation or would think that random person is unreasonable, then maybe you can reflect on how this situation came across from the other side.

I don’t drive actually, (I know that’s another Mumsnet no no) I walked into town. Sometimes I bike or get the bus. Or the tram, but they’re re-doing the track at my local stop.

’one kid’ - not always though is it. It’s like those people that just pick ‘a few’ wild flowers, well, if we all did it, there wouldn’t be any left. (No I’m not talking about bloody dandelions)

I would find your view point hypocritical unless you were. I am and would be upset by this, not enough to say something though.

What’s that got to do with the price of fish?

Take it home? What the hell. Why? Leave it be. But then I've seen gormless parents letting their kids chase and kick birds so nothing surprises me.

Was just picking up a few bits in M&S and there was a girl about 8 years old or so swinging one of those butterfly net thingies off her arm. On closer inspection I saw she had one in there (not the ones you send away for, although that would be bad enough, one that had obviously been procured organically)

Her mum was busy looking at something so I said to the girl ‘oh! What a pretty butterfly. That’s a large white. I except you’re going to let it go after you’ve finished your shopping, aren’t you?’

The mum came over beaming presumably ready to hear a comment about what a fun summer holiday activity this all is, and said ‘no, we’ll take it home, keep it for a few days and observe it. It flew straight into the net so we had this ready to pop it straight into!’

‘I said ‘well I’m sure it would have been preferred to be observed in nature, where it was, not caught in a net and taken round the shops. Don’t you think it’s a bit cruel?’

Anyway she was visibly annoyed, and said ‘it’s fine. My children are learning about nature! We know what it eats!’

Anyway she steered her child away from me and said some people are just very joyless and bitter.

Yeah I know I probably sound like a busy body but I can’t bear it when parents tell their kids it’s ok to just take stuff out of nature for their own amusement. Why is it ok to do this? It’s so Victorian, to capture a creature to just look at it, no thought for the poor thing at all. Don’t get me started on why they still sell butterfly nets 😭